Response to Governor Brown’s drought declaration in California

San Francisco — In response to Governor Brown’s drought declaration, David Turnbull, Campaigns Director of Oil Change International and the BigOilBrown.org campaign, released the following statement:

“The Governor’s drought declaration should be the final straw for fracking in the state. To frack for oil in California is to deny the facts of climate change, which tell us we have to leave this oil in the ground if we want a safe future. To allow water-intensive fracking for oil to continue in a drought is to deny the reality of what California’s farmers and communities are facing every day, and will face with ever more frequency in a climate changed future.

Our state cannot afford to waste more water digging up oil causing the very climate changes that will lead to more droughts like these in the future. With the Governor’s drought declaration, it’s clear the time is now to stop fracking in California immediately.”

Background:

Today, Oil Change International is launching a new phase of the www.BigOilBrown.org campaign, mobilizing thousands of Californians to tell Governor Brown to place an immediate halt on fracking in the state in response to the drought declaration. Already, over 200,000 concerned Californians have called for a ban on fracking through Californians Against Fracking. The new effort from the Big Oil Brown campaign seeks an immediate halt to fracking in the state based on the massive water use fracking entails, coupled with the climate impacts of extracting oil from the Monterey shale.

Fracking wells generally consume between 2 and 10 million gallons of water in their lifetime. If every potential well in California identified by the US Energy Information Agency were to be fracked, some 5 billion gallons of water would be required. For more information on fracking and water use, see www.bigoilbrown.org